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Fraunhofer ITEM/P. Reinig

Germany is one of the leading actors in the pursuit of researching, fighting and ultimately annihilating cancer. On this page, we want to give you more information on the German research landscape in the field of cancer research and highlight some players and institutions that work towards this goal. Learn more about who does cancer research in Germany, where you can get the right funding for your work in this field and get in touch with the right people that can help you join the fight against cancer in Germany.

Who does cancer research in Germany?

Cancer research in Germany is conducted at universities and also at non-university research institutions. Almost all universities host a cancer research section. The spectrum ranges from small monothematic working groups to large interdisciplinary departments and covers a variety of topics from traditional areas to new explorative research fields. For a comprehensive overview, please take a look at our brochure “Research in Germany - Cancer Research”:

Research in Germany - Cancer Research (2022, 32 pages)

Are you interested in pursuing your PhD or getting cooperation partners in the field of Cancer Research in Germany? We invite you to explore the many opportunities available to you in Germany. This brochure provides students, early career researchers and partners from abroad with information to find places of interest and potential cooperation partners in their specific field.

On top of this, there is a lot more to discover: the  Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation)  funds a multitude of individual projects in the area of cancer research. These individual grants outweigh the research consortia that are listed in the brochure both in number and in overall funding volume. The online database  GEPRIS  provides information on all DFG-funded research projects. Use this online database to find out which scientists in Germany work in your field of expertise!

Research institutions focusing on cancer research

Here are some examples of outstanding institutions and projects that focus on cancer research, both at non-university and university-based research institutions:

Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum

The German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) is the largest biomedical research institute in Germany and a member of the Helmholtz Association of National Research Centers. In over 90 divisions and research groups, more than 3,100 employees, of which more than 1,300 are scientists, are investigating the mechanisms of cancer, are identifying cancer risk factors and are trying to find strategies to prevent people from getting cancer. They are developing novel approaches to make tumor diagnosis more precise and treatment of cancer patients more successful. (Source: www.dkfz.de )   Talent management and career development at the DKFZ plays a central role in maintaining excellence. Structured education of graduate students is provided by the DKFZ International PhD Program and, together with the DKFZ International Postdoc Program and an established Career Service, our training programs prepare junior scientists for their next career step inside or outside of academia. The new DKFZ Clinician Scientist Program fosters innovative translational research by strengthening the research profile of clinician scientists. The DKFZ offers various job and career opportunities for cancer researchers of all career levels. Current job offers can be accessed directly on dkfz.de  or here .

Contact German Cancer Research Center Im Neuenheimer Feld 280 69120 Heidelberg

Cluster of Excellence “Image-Guided and Functionally Instructed Tumor Therapies (iFIT)”

The global number of patients suffering from cancer will continue to rise in the next decades, especially due to demographic changes and an ageing population. Despite significant advancements in cancer screening and early diagnosis, around one quarter of all patients are diagnosed with advanced cancer stages, the majority of which cannot be offered a curative therapeutic option. While the number of innovative cancer therapies (molecularly targeted therapies, novel cytotoxic drugs, immunotherapies) is continuously rising, long term therapeutic success is often hampered by the development of therapy resistance.  In order to lay the foundation for the development of improved future cancer therapies, scientists of the Cluster of Excellence 2180 "Image-guided and Functionally Instructed Tumor Therapies" (iFIT) are studying fundamental tumor biological processes in solid tumors. The unique iFIT approach is based on a highly intertwined and boundless research program comprising Tübingen´s three internationally competitive research areas “Functionally Instructed Molecular Therapies”, “Immunotherapies” and “Molecular and Functional Multiparametric Imaging”.

Functionally Instructed Molecular Therapies

Scientists from this research area take advantage of advanced platforms for high throughput functional genetic screening (in particular in vivo screens) to pinpoint new vulnerabilities in therapy resistant solid tumors. A major focus also lies on screens to identify potential targets in T-cells or tumor cells, which upon inhibition via small molecules increase the therapeutic efficacy of cancer immunotherapies. Proprietary small molecule inhibitors against prioritized therapeutic targets are developed in close collaboration with the Tübingen Center for Academic Drug Discovery and Development (TüCAD2). 

Immunotherapies

How can innovative immunotherapies help to activate our defense system against tumor cells? Scientists from the research area “Immunotherapies” have performed pioneering work by elucidating the recognition mechanisms of T-cells. They recognize peptides, which are presented on special cell surface molecules. These peptides enable T-cells to detect pathological changes in the cells. Based on this, the concept of individualized cancer peptide vaccination was developed.

Molecular and Functional Multiparametric Imaging

How can multiparametric imaging be further developed to achieve a quantifiable visualization of functional, molecular and immunological mechanisms of tumors? Scientists from the research area “Molecular and Functional Multiparametric Imaging” are dedicated to develop novel-specific tracers and MR biomarkers to image immune cells in vivo as well as cellular stress and related metabolic changes of tumor cells during tumor development and after therapy.

Spokesperson and participating institutions

Spokesperson of the cluster is the oncologist Professor Lars Zender, Medical Director of the Department of Medical Oncology and Pneumology of the University Hospital Tübingen. Co-spokespersons are Professor Bernd Pichler, Director of the Werner Siemens Imaging Center at the University of Tübingen, and Professor Hans-Georg Rammensee, director of the Institute of Immunology at Tübingen University. Further participating institutions are the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems , the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics , the Natural and Medical Sciences Institute at the University of Tübingen , the Margarete Fischer Bosch Institute for Clinical Pharmacology and the German Cancer Consortium .

Contact iFIT Cluster of Excellence [email protected] Röntgenweg 11 72076 Tübingen Germany  

Fraunhofer Institute for Toxicology and Experimental Medicine ITEM

Fraunhofer ITEM is one of 76 institutions of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Europe's leading organization for applied research. Headquartered in Hannover (Germany) and with additional facilities in Braunschweig and Regensburg, the institute aims to protect man from health hazards in our industrialized world and to contribute to the development of novel therapeutic approaches.

The Fraunhofer ITEM division in Regensburg is dedicated to  Personalized Tumor Therapy  and has a special expertise in the isolation and characterization of disseminated or circulating cancer cells. Circulating tumor cells (CTC) are isolated, for example, by taking simple blood samples (referred to as “liquid biopsy”), whereas disseminated cancer cells (DCC) can be isolated from lymph node tissue or bone marrow. These rare cells are subject to in-house, advanced next-generation multi-omics sequencing technologies and bioinformatic data analysis to reliably analyze the comprehensive genetic information at the single-cell level. Further expertise includes the analysis of cell-free, tumor-derived blood components (circulating tumor DNA, microvesicles) and innovative tissue-based analytical methods (tissue biopsy). Additionally, supported by a large clinical network, Fraunhofer ITEM in Regensburg is developing workflows for rare-cell expansion and has already established a multitude of in-vitro/in-vivo models based on DCC or CTC from various tumor entities. These preclinical models are used for high-throughput screening of substances and RNAi/CRISPR libraries to identify active agents and targets to gain a better functional understanding of DCC and CTC biology and of their response to therapy. This provides new opportunities not only for molecular diagnostics in precision oncology, but also for the investigation of pathophysiological processes in rare driver cells.

In addition, ex-vivo models developed by the institute’s Division of  Preclinical Pharmacology and Toxicology  in Hannover offer a novel opportunity to study early stages of metastasis and primary human tumors. Precision-cut tissue slice (PCTS) systems either from tumor tissue or peripheral organs co-cultured with tumor cells enable the investigation of human tissue-derived immune reactions, for instance key events of immune tolerance to tumor cells or early colonization events in metastasis. This facilitates testing of treatments such as gene therapy, checkpoint inhibitors or cell therapeutics with regard to their mode of action, targeting, efficacy and toxicity in an organotypic human setting.

The particular value of such a model is based on 1) human background, addressing the complexity of the appropriated microenvironment, 2) patient-specificity of the tumor cells in order to reflect tumor heterogeneity, 3) immune competence to assess the tolerance-inducing mechanisms, and 4) applicability of molecular and cellular manipulation and analysis tools.

Research on personalized tumor therapy is one of several key topics at Fraunhofer ITEM. Focusing on lung and inhalation, the institute’s divisions in Hannover and Braunschweig have pooled their expertise in three business units: In the business unit  Drug Development , we develop and test novel medications against respiratory diseases (including lung cancer). Scientific expertise covers manufacturing of biologics such as therapeutic antibodies, preclinical and clinical development. The business unit  Chemical Safety  is dedicated to determining the risks from potentially harmful substances. Scientific expertise includes toxicology testing, exposure assessment, analytical methods, regulatory research and risk assessment. The business unit  Translational Biomedical Engineering  offers many years of experience in the development of medical devices – specifically neural implants and medical aerosolizers – including testing and testing scenarios, safety and risk assessment. All business units offer regulatory support. Numerous test systems are available, including in-vitro, ex-vivo and in-vivo. Studies can be performed in compliance with GXP regulations.

Personalized Tumor Therapy Fraunhofer ITEM – pioneers for sustainable health

Funding for international cancer researchers in Germany

Whether you are a young international researcher looking for a scholarship, an early career researcher wanting to pursue a PhD in the field of cancer research at a German graduate school, or a more experienced researcher who wants to start a collaboration with a German partner – the right funding programme can help you with your next career step. Finding the right programme can make all the difference.

For an overview of funding opportunities, please see our brochure about funding programmes for international researchers:

Funding your research in Germany (2023-24, 80 pages)

A selection of funding programmes for German and foreign academics run by the most important research funding institutions. Target group: international students, graduates, post-docs and academics interested in a research stay in Germany.

Most of the funding programmes that are included in the brochure, are offered by the  Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation ), the  German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)  and the  Alexander von Humboldt Foundation .

iStock.com/Urbazon

You can find more detailed descriptions of these organizations when looking for in-depth information on your PhD , Postdoc and Advanced Research in Germany .

Get in touch with us!

To help you navigate through the German cancer research landscape and find the right funding programme for your needs, we invite you to get in touch with us!

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation): Dr. Stefan Thiel  [email protected] , Department II, Life Sciences Dr. Anke Deggerich  [email protected] , Department II, Life Sciences Ms. Bettina Schuffert [email protected] , DFG Office North America

iFIT Cluster of Excellence "Image-guided and Functionally Instructed Tumor Therapies": Ms. Eva Enzinger  [email protected]

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The German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) is, with more than 3,000 employees, the largest biomedical research facility in Germany. More than 1,000 scientists at DKFZ conduct research on how cancer emerges, ascertain cancer-risk factors, and look for new strategies that prevent individuals from getting cancer. They are currently developing new methods with which tumors can be diagnosed more precisely, and cancer patients can be treated more successfully. Employees at the Krebsinformationsdienst (KID) explain the widespread disease cancer to patients, family members and interested citizens. Jointly with the University Clinic Heidelberg, the DKFZ has installed the National Center for Tumour Diseases (NCT) Heidelberg, in which promising approaches from cancer research are transferred into the clinic.  In the German Consortium for Translational Cancer Research (DKTK) , one of the six German centers for health research, the DKFZ maintains translation centers at seven university partner sites.

The bonding of excellent university medicine with top-level research at a Helmholtz Center represents a significant contribution towards improving opportunities for cancer patients. The DKFZ is financed 90 percent by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and 10 percent by the Federal State Baden-Württemberg, and is a member of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers.

The German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ)

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Fighting cancer at the root

Researchers at the branch of the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Dresden are working on tiny robots. These are designed to act autonomously in the body and fight cancer directly at its root.

Prevention - our most powerful weapon against cancer

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Cancer researchers to market crayfish

By studying marbled crayfish, Sina Tönges and Frank Lyko, from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), were able to gain new insights into the development of cancer. Now the researchers want to…

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Stefan Pfister of the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) is developing new methods to diagnose tumors in children and adolescents more precisely and treat them more effectively.

How food protects our health

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• 27 March 2019

An introduction to the complexities of the German research scene

• Hristio Boytchev 0

Hristio Boytchev is a journalist in Berlin.

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A trainee from the Fraunhofer Institute checks plastic fibre at a research and development centre in Wolfsburg, Germany. Credit: Sean Gallup/Getty

Raúl Rojas, an artificial-intelligence researcher at the Free University of Berlin, came to Germany from Mexico more than 35 years ago. “I wanted to study in Europe, and Germany seemed like an interesting place, especially Berlin,” he says. “I came to do my PhD at the Free University but never planned to stay here.” However, before even completing his doctorate, Rojas was hired by the GMD National Research Center for Information Technology to work on machine learning. “One contract led to another, and before you realize, you’ve built your career in another country.”

Nature Career Guide: Germany

A lot has changed since Rojas arrived in West Germany in 1982, a country that would exist only for another seven years until the fall of the Berlin Wall. “There were not many researchers from other countries [back then]; that has changed now,” he says.

Germany offers a vast and varied research landscape, with more than 1,000 public and publicly funded science and research institutions. Among them are more than 300 universities. In contrast to other countries — such as the United Kingdom with the University of Cambridge and University of Oxford, or the United States with its Ivy League schools — the best research isn’t clustered in just one or two exceptional institutes. “There are good universities in all of the German states,” Rojas says.

High-quality research takes place even in smaller, less well-known places. In the town of Jena in the east of Germany, for example, research on photonics and optics is clustered. Dresden is becoming a centre for biomedical research, and some of the oldest and most prestigious universities are situated in smaller cities such as Heidelberg, Würzburg, Freiburg and Göttingen.

Source: Eurostat

“A weakness is maybe the fact that the amount of resources available for university projects is much higher in elite American universities,” Rojas adds. “Only the Max Planck Institutes in Germany can compete with those.”

The Max Planck Society is a network of institutes that focus on basic research. Although publicly funded, the society operates independently of the government. The institutes are a prominent example of the fact that in Germany, strong research is often conducted outside universities. Additional examples of this include the Helmholtz Association, which focuses on large-scale, infrastructure-intensive projects such as aeronautic development, and the Fraunhofer Society, which combines basic and applied research. Other important public institutions include the federal academies of sciences and humanities, academic societies (which in particular fund research in the humanities) and institutions that work directly for the government, such as the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin, w hich focuses on disease control and prevention.

In 2016, public and private investment in research and development (R&D) in Germany came to more than €92 billion (US$105 billion) — or more than €1,000 per capita. Only the United States, China and Japan invested more. In terms of R&D spending relative to gross domestic product, Germany is seventh in the world.

Source: Federal Ministry of Education and Research

The country’s product-innovation sector generated a turnover of €719 billion in 2016, more than 12% of the most-cited scientific papers are produced in Germany and the nation ranks highly for innovation.

The German federal and state governments finance almost 30% of research. The government also provides direct, short- to medium-term funding for specific research projects and research conducted at federal research institutions, as well as for large-scale research projects in aviation, space, marine and nuclear research. Germany’s main funding body is the German Research Organization (DFG), which is financed by the German states and the federal government but works as a self-governed body. In 2017, it had a funding budget of €3.2 billion.

The remaining two-thirds of German R&D funding comes from the private sector. A major proportion of this goes into the manufacturing industries — automotive manufacture alone receives nearly 35% of industry funding.

Finding a lab to call your own

The generous funding helps to ameliorate one of the traditional weaknesses of the German research system — its comparative lack of permanent positions.

“The German university system is very hierarchical”, Rojas says. “There are not many tenured academic positions; only professors have a position for life.” The small number of permanent senior positions means that late-career-stage scientists should be prepared to look for research opportunities in industry, he adds.

Source: Federal Statistics Office

In 2017, research by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research revealed that around 93% of non-professorial academic staff at German universities were on fixed-term contracts, and about half of those contracts were shorter than one year. Historically, tenure-track positions have not generally featured in the German university system. Although there have been initiatives to introduce more permanent positions over the past two decades, the proportion of such job openings still falls well short of that in other countries with more well-established tenure-track systems.

This is one of the reasons why computational biologist Uwe Ohler decided to temporarily leave Germany. In 2002, Ohler completed his PhD at the University of Erlangen–Nuremberg, but after that, the more interesting projects in his field — as well as the possibility of a tenure-track position — lured him to the United States. “There is a lack of young independent positions with long-term perspectives in Germany”, Ohler says. Many faculties and institutes in Germany are still hierarchical in their organization, and junior principal investigator positions are on limited-term contracts. “In my experience, institutions may advertise positions that appear to offer scientists a tenure track, but the contractual fine print can reveal they are not equivalent to the secure positions available in the United States, for example.”

After 10 years in the United States, and from a tenured position, Ohler decided to come back to Germany as a professor at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in Berlin, a research institute of the Helmholtz Association. Senior positions in Germany have advantages, he says. In particular, he notes that his basic funding for staff is higher than in the United States, making it possible to have a larger group paid for by the institute without exclusively relying on finding further research grants.

But although Ohler is German, it took him some time to adapt to the system after he returned to the country. “I made myself answer e-mails in English, so people would think I wasn’t German and help explain the system to me,” he says. “Learning how it works takes some time for outsiders.”

In the end, however, Ohler thinks that communicating in German is crucial for those looking to stay in the country for the long term. “It’s tough to get a university teaching position if you don’t speak the language. So my advice is to get practising early on.”

Nature 567 , S34-S35 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-00910-7

This article is part of Nature Career Guide: Germany , an editorially independent supplement. Advertisers have no influence over the content.

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11 December 2023  | Changes in small blood vessels are a common consequence of diabetes development. Researchers at TUM and Helmholtz Munich have now developed a method that can be used to measure these microvascular changes in the skin – and thus assess the severity of the disease. To achieve this, they combine AI and innovative high-resolution optoacoustic imaging technology.

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2729 Study programs

Study Biomedical Engineering in Germany: 17 Universities with 20 English Degree Programs

All important info for international students in germany (2024/2025).

Biomedical Engineering is the dynamic nexus where engineering principles meet the vast world of medicine. This field is dedicated to creating cutting-edge medical tools, devices, and techniques that improve patient care and outcomes. Students diving into Biomedical Engineering will explore topics like bioinstrumentation, medical imaging, biomechanics, and tissue engineering. By marrying the rigor of engineering with the intricacies of biological systems, learners will innovate solutions to pressing medical challenges. Those immersing themselves in this discipline will craft devices like artificial organs, design diagnostic machinery, and enhance therapeutic strategies. Upon graduation, they can pave their way as biomedical designers, clinical engineers, or research scientists, propelling healthcare into the future.

Study Programs in English

Universities

Universities in International Rankings

€ 0 (19 programs for EU citizens, 16 programs for Non-EU citizens)

€ 6,000 per semester (1 program for EU citizens/Non-EU)

Winter Semester

between May 31 and May 15

Summer Semester

Top-ranked German Universities in Biomedical Engineering

public Technical University

No. of Students: approx. 53,000 students

Program Fees: € 0 - € 6,000 (per semester)

public University

No. of Students: approx. 28,000 students

Program Fees: € 0 - € 1,500 (per semester)

Tuition Fees

3 english degree programs for biomedical engineering in germany.

HTW Berlin - University of Applied Sciences Berlin

Mba & engineering life science management.

Kiel University Kiel

Electrical and information engineering (e&ie).

Ernst-Abbe-Hochschule Jena - University of Applied Sciences Jena

Scientific instrumentation.

Application Deadlines

Winter Semester 2024/2025

Summer Semester 2025

Winter Semester 2025/2026

Open Programs

13 programs

17 programs

Application Modes

Application process.

Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg Magdeburg

Medical systems engineering.

Deggendorf Institute of Technology Deggendorf

Life science informatics.

Friedrich Schiller University Jena Jena

Medical photonics.

TOEFL Scores

Cambridge Levels

5 (1 program )

72 (2 programs )

B2 First (FCE) (3 programs )

7 (1 program )

95 (2 programs )

C2 Proficiency (CPE) (2 programs )

Molecular Medicine

Molecular Life Sciences

Deggendorf Institute of Technology Pfarrkirchen / Deggendorf

Health informatics.

2-8 semesters

→ View all programs with online courses

Master of Business Administration

Master of Science

Bachelor of Science

Winter intake

Summer intake

Winter & Summer intake

List of all German Universities offering English-taught Study Programs in Biomedical Engineering

Anhalt University of Applied Sciences

Program Fees: € 0

M.Sc. (Master of Science)

Deggendorf Institute of Technology

B.Sc. (Bachelor of Science)

Ernst-Abbe-Hochschule Jena - University of Applied Sciences

Friedrich Schiller University Jena

Furtwangen University

Program Fees: € 0 - € 1,500

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Best Global Universities for Biology and Biochemistry in Germany

These are the top universities in Germany for biology and biochemistry, based on their reputation and research in the field. Read the methodology »

To unlock more data and access tools to help you get into your dream school, sign up for the  U.S. News College Compass !

Here are the best global universities for biology and biochemistry in Germany

Ruprecht karls university heidelberg, university of munich, technical university of munich, university of wurzburg, free university of berlin, humboldt university of berlin, university of freiburg, eberhard karls university of tubingen, goethe university frankfurt, university of gottingen.

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• # 27 in Best Universities for Biology and Biochemistry  (tie)
• # 57 in Best Global Universities  (tie)

Heidelberg University is a public institution that was founded in 1386, earning it the title of Germany's oldest... Read More

• # 42 in Best Universities for Biology and Biochemistry
• # 47 in Best Global Universities

The University of Munich is a public institution that traces its roots back to 1472. It is situated in Munich – the... Read More

• # 48 in Best Universities for Biology and Biochemistry
• # 79 in Best Global Universities

The Technical University of Munich, sometimes called TUM, is a public institution that was founded in 1868. The... Read More

• # 49 in Best Universities for Biology and Biochemistry  (tie)
• # 192 in Best Global Universities  (tie)
• # 69 in Best Universities for Biology and Biochemistry  (tie)
• # 87 in Best Global Universities

The Free University of Berlin is a public institution that was founded in 1948. The university has three main campuses... Read More

• # 61 in Best Global Universities

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin is a public institution in Germany that was founded in 1810. The university’s campuses... Read More

• # 89 in Best Universities for Biology and Biochemistry  (tie)
• # 178 in Best Global Universities  (tie)
• # 96 in Best Universities for Biology and Biochemistry  (tie)
• # 182 in Best Global Universities  (tie)
• # 121 in Best Universities for Biology and Biochemistry
• # 236 in Best Global Universities  (tie)
• # 122 in Best Universities for Biology and Biochemistry
• # 163 in Best Global Universities  (tie)

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Biomedical Sciences

The doctoral program Biomedical Sciences, which was established within the Dahlem Research School and receives funding from Freie Universität, the German Research Foundation (DFG), and other external partners, offers a structured doctoral education program in the broad field of fundamentally oriented and applied life sciences.

From investigating individual molecules with high potential for medical applications to explaining the mechanisms used by infectious diseases that can be transmitted to humans and beyond, to hands-on projects in patient care and food science, the school offers students a broad spectrum of subjects. To do so, students are integrated into scientific projects that reflect the subjects of research pursued by the participating research groups within the Department of Biology, Chemistry, and Pharmacy and the Department of Veterinary Medicine at Freie Universität.

Read more: www.vetmed.fu-berlin.de/einrichtungen/sonstige/drs

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Higher Education Compass

Human biology/biomedical science full time, bachelor of science.

Bachelor Degree

6 semesters

Standard period of study (amount)

July 2024 (Germans and inhabitants)

Please enquire

Overview and admission

undergraduate

Admission semester

Winter Semester only

Area of study

• Biochemistry
• Human Biology, Biomedicine
• Microbiology
• Molecular Biology

Tumour Biology, Cell Biology, Immunobiology and Infection Biology, Neurobiology, Biomedizin

The Bachelor's degree in Human Biology/Biomedical Science offered by the Department of Medicine is designed to qualify students for scientific and practical work in the field of basic biomedical research in medicine. During the first semesters, the necessary basics are taught through natural science modules (mathematics and physics, molecular basics) and subject-specific core modules (anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, molecular biology, etc.). In addition, in higher semesters, more medically relevant content is included in the curriculum (e.g. in-depth courses in neurology, pathology, molecular imaging, etc.). Research focuses During the course of study, students specialise in one of the four main areas of immunology and infection biology, neurobiology, tumour biology or cell biology. Aims As the degree course primarily provides you with skills and competences in the field of research and laboratory work, it qualifies you in particular for activities such as - in an academic environment - in research institutes - in the pharmaceutical industry or - in the research-oriented private sector (e.g. biotech companies). The practical module provided during your degree can give you an insight into possible fields of activity in the above-mentioned institutions. Although a bachelor's degree represents a completed course of study and qualifies the student for employment, a master's degree is often required in research-oriented institutions. Applications are submitted via the Dialogue Oriented Service Process (DoSV) of Hochschulstart!

Admission modus

selection by the HEI

Admission requirements

http://www.uni-marburg.de/studium/studienangebot/bachelor/humanbiobsc

Lecture period

• 15.04.2024 - 19.07.2024
• 14.10.2024 - 14.02.2025

Application deadlines

Winter semester (2024/2025), deadlines for international students from the european union.

The application deadlines for study programmes at the Philipps-Universität Marburg can be found on our university homepage under the following link: www.uni-marburg.de/de/studium/bewerbung/bewerbungsfristen

Deadlines for international students from countries that are not members of the European Union

Application deadline for germans and inhabitants.

01.06.2024 - 15.07.2024

Tuition fee

There are currently no tuition fees in the state of Hesse!

Languages of instruction

Main language, further languages.

Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst e.V. Kennedyallee 50 53175 Bonn

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Bioengineering Center Biological and Medical Imaging

We invent innovative imaging and sensing technologies and drive their clinical translation by developing bioengineering solutions for the life sciences and medicine to benefit patients and society.

The Institute of Biological and Medical Imaging (IBMI) of Helmholtz Munich, Germany, is a multi-disciplinary academic research structure strongly integrated with the Chair of Biological Imaging at the Technical University of Munich. 

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• Our Research

Research Groups

• Our Scientists
• Institute in Numbers

Publication Highlights

About our research.

IBMI is a multi-disciplinary academic research structure strongly integrated with the Chair of Biological Imaging at the Technical University of Munich and is the cornerstone of a rapidly expanding bioengineering ecosystem in the Munich science area; including the Research Center TranslaTUM and the Helmholtz Pioneer Campus, which integrate bioengineering with oncology and metabolic disorders, respectively. Our scientists develop bioengineering solutions for the life sciences and medicine to benefit patients and society by inventing next-generation imaging and sensing methods. Our innovations make it possible to measure previously inaccessible properties of living systems, catalyzing breakthroughs in biology, medicine, and the environment.

Comprising 12 interdisciplinary laboratories and scientists from more than 25 countries, we offer state-of-the-art infrastructure for innovative research, promote independent career development and diversity as well as a perfect environment for networking in international consortia. Our research aims to shift the paradigm of biological discovery and healthcare impact and address the major health challenges of our time by developing the medical solutions of tomorrow.

Nanomedicine and Biomarkers

In the Nanomedicine and Biomarkers Group, we study preclinical models of disease with label-free MSOT imaging to develop working pipelines for in vivo detection and quantification of biomarkers, such as lipid content, blood perfusion, and tissue oxygenation.

Cell Engineering

The research group for Molecular Engineering focuses on enabling this rich variety of tools for opto-acoustic (OA) imaging. OA is an emerging methodology bridging light excitation and ultrasound detection towards deep tissue imaging.

Clinical Bioengineering

The Laboratory for Multispectral Optoacoustic Tomography researches (multi-spectral) optoacoustic imaging technology geared towards clinical applications.

AI in Optoacoustics

At the group for "AI in Optoacoustics" of IBMI, we design innovative algorithms for biomedical imaging modalities based on sophisticated mathematical models.

Fluorescence Imaging

The Laboratory develops advanced fluorescence imaging methods for pre-clinical and clinical imaging, leading in 2011 to the first clinical translation of a targeted fluorescent agent for optical molecular imaging of patients.

Mechanobiology

Our group’s primary research interest is to understand the mechanobiology of the airway epithelium.

Optoacoustic Endoscopy

The Laboratory for Optoacoustic Endoscopy researches (multi-spectral) optoacoustic imaging technology geared towards clinical applications.

Optoacoustic Mesoscopy

Our group conceives, designs and develops multispectral optoacoustic technology that allows performing non-invasive anatomical, functional and molecular optical imaging of the skin in the clinics.

Medical Sensors

Our research innovates hybrid methods combining thermoacoustic, optoacoustic and fluorescence imaging.

Translational Optoacoustics

Our group focuses on developing technology and applications on the combination of optical and optoacoustic microscopy in order to deliver contrast and imaging abilities not available in optical microscopes today.

Biology Core Facility

The group „Core Facilities“ is centered around provision and development of cell lines and animal models for optoacoustic imaging.

Our projects and clinical Trials

Under the Skin: Better Treatment of Psoriasis by Scanning Light and Sound

A clinical study confirms the success of a novel technology developed by Helmholtz Munich and the Technical University of Munich (TUM) for the evaluation of the treatment of psoriasis. With the new method, doctors can look deeper into the skin of…

A Light in the Dark Tissue: Switchable Proteins for Biomedical Imaging

Biomedical imaging is the window through which we can look into organisms. It allows us to see cells, their behavior and localization that would otherwise be hidden. Tracking very few cells over time without damaging them is a key challenge in health…

Karl Heinz Beckurts Prize 2021 for Vasilis Ntziachristos

Vasilis Ntziachristos receives this year's Karl Heinz Beckurts Prize for his outstanding achievements and pioneering work in the field of biomedical imaging. The BioNTech and CureVac founders were also honored with special prizes at the award…

“Honey, I Shrunk the Detector”: Researchers Have Developed the World’s Smallest Ultrasound Detector

Researchers at Helmholtz Zentrum München and the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have developed the world’s smallest ultrasound detector. It is based on miniaturized photonic circuits on top of a silicon chip. With a size 100 times smaller than…

Our Management Team at IBMI

Dr. Andre C. Stiel

Dr. Janna Nawroth

Dr. Vipul Gujrati

Angelos Karlas, MD; Dipl-Ing.

Dr. Dominik Jüstel

Dr. Dimitris Gorpas

Prof. Dr. Miguel Angel Rafael Pleitez

Dr. Hailong He

Dr. Philipp Köhler

Dr. Doris Bengel

Our scientists at ibmi.

Prof. Dr. Vasilis Ntziachristos

Dr. Antonia Longo

Nikolina-Alexia Fasoula

Jan Kukacka

Suhanyaa Nitkunanantharajah

Nurettin Okan Ülgen

Mariia Stankevych

Francesca Gasparin

Christoph Dehner

Anna Tenditnaya

Maria Begona Rojas Lopez

Elena Kriukova

Linda Hädrich

Maximilian Bader

Ludwig Englert

Dr. Yishu Huang

Lukas Platz

Klaudia Winkler

Simon Göllner

Claudia Hofmann

Dr. Davide Di Giuseppe

Azeem Mohammed

Philipp Haim

Myeongseop Kim

Sarah Franceschin

Manuel Gehmeyr

Sarkis Ter Martirosyan

Dr. Thi Bich Tram Do

Constantin Berger

Dr. Chadi Abdel Sattar Ibrahim

Riccardo Zulla

David Gorbunov

Realeses per year

Max Numbers

Di Giosia, M. ; Solda, A. ; Seeger, M. ; Cantelli, A. ; Arnesano, F. ; Nardella, M.I. ; Mangini, V. ; Valle, F. ; Montalti, M. ; Zerbetto, F. ; Rapino, S. ; Calvaresi, M. ; Ntziachristos, V.

A bio-conjugated fullerene as a subcellular-targeted and multifaceted phototheranostic agent. Adv. Func. Mat. 31:2101527 (2021)

Herud-Sikimić, O. ; Stiel, A.-C. ; Kolb, M. ; Shanmugaratnam, S. ; Berendzen, K.W. ; Feldhaus, C. ; Höcker, B. ; Jürgens, G.

A biosensor for the direct visualization of auxin.

Karlas, A. ; Pleitez, M.A. ; Aguirre Bueno, J. ; Ntziachristos, V.

Optoacoustic imaging in endocrinology and metabolism.

Mishra, K. ; Fuenzalida Werner, J.P. ; Pennacchietti, F. [extern] ; Janowski, R. ; Chmyrov, A. ; Huang, Y. ; Zakian Dominguez, C.M. ; Klemm, U. ; Testa, I. [extern] ; Niessing, D. ; Ntziachristos, V. ; Stiel, A.-C.

Genetically encoded photo-switchable molecular sensors for optoacoustic and super-resolution imaging.

Voskuil, F.J. ; Vonk, J. ; van der Vegt, B. ; Kruijff, S. ; Ntziachristos, V. ; van der Zaag, P.J. ; Witjes, M.J.H. ; van Dam, G.M.

Intraoperative imaging in pathology-assisted surgery.

Westerveld, W.J. ; Mahmud-Ul-Hasan, M. ; Shnaiderman, R. ; Ntziachristos, V. ; Rottenberg, X. ; Severi, S. ; Rochus, V.

Sensitive, small, broadband and scalable optomechanical ultrasound sensor in silicon photonics.

Haedicke, K. ; Agemy, L. ; Omar, M. ; Berezhnoi, A. ; Roberts, S. ; Longo-Machado, C. ; Skubal, M. ; Nagar, K. ; Hsu, H.T. ; Kim, K. ; Reiner, T. ; Coleman, J. ; Ntziachristos, V. ; Scherz, A. ; Grimm, J.

High-resolution optoacoustic imaging of tissue responses to vascular-targeted therapies.

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Institutes and Research Units in Germany

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Battery Cell Production FFB

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Fraunhofer Match is the central platform for placing research requests with Fraunhofer. Our 76 Fraunhofer institutes cover all areas of applied research. You tell us about your challenge or project − and Fraunhofer Match will put you in touch with researchers who have the right expertise to help you work out solutions.

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Pennington Biomedical Professor Emeritus Dr. George Bray Publishes 100-Year History of Obesity Research

May 21, 2024 · Baton Rouge, LA

Published in the International Journal of Obesity, a division of Nature, the paper lays out a high-level history of the science community’s understanding obesity and its treatments  

Dr. George Bray has dedicated his professional life to researching obesity and metabolism, serving as the first executive director of Pennington Biomedical Research Center in 1989. Now as professor emeritus, his most recent publication explores the extensive history of obesity research over the past 100 years and prior. 

Published in the International Journal of Obesity, a journal in the portfolio of Nature magazine, “ Obesity: a 100-year perspective ” tracks early explorations into the field, the emergence of structured research around obesity, and a series of lessons gleaned from a high-level view of this history.  

“While it has been repeatedly shown that diets only work when followed or that medications only work when taken, it is key to remember that obesity is a chronic, relapsing and progressive disease process, an idea that was discussed as early as 1760,” said Dr. Bray. “We are living in a rapidly evolving period of obesity research and the subsequent emergence of medication interventions. This publication steps back and shows how we reached this point, and how key milestones that shaped facets from the research field to public perception of obesity.” 

In laying out the history of obesity research, Dr. Bray explained how the understanding of obesity has long and extensive roots, with Hippocrates noting its association with ill-health as early as 500 B.C., but the scientific research developed in earnest over the past two centuries. First expanding on early attempts to scientifically measure and quantify obesity, he then describes the histories behind identifying fat cells as energy storage receptacles, identifying the phenotypes of obesity, and the theories of what drive hunger. He elaborates on early dietary approaches to obesity, and the emergence of efforts to treat obesity through medicine and surgery.  

Dr. Bray also features the more recent and important history of identifying obesity as a public health problem, with the American insurance industry serving as early pioneers in establishing mass media campaigns to inform the public of obesity’s risks. Around this time, American medical journals were beginning to publish articles on obesity, with the first physicians’ association focusing on obesity, The National Glandular Society, forming in 1950.  

Though he does not specifically include it, Dr. Bray’s examination of the formation of obesity research in terms of societies, congresses and journals naturally implies the growth of dedicated research facilities in the mid- to late 20th century, including Pennington Biomedical.  

“Dr. Bray is a living legend, and here at Pennington Biomedical, we are sustaining his legacy of research into obesity, metabolism and nutrition,” said Dr. John Kirwan, Executive Director of Pennington Biomedical. “As Dr. Bray laid the foundation of the research conducted here at Pennington Biomedical, it is fitting that his recent paper highlights the foundational moments that have driven the growth of this research field. He illuminates the discoveries and emerging techniques with his trademark aphorisms. Researchers of obesity and metabolism, both here and elsewhere, are indebted to Dr. Bray for his lifetime of research that we continue to work from today.”  

Dr. Bray concludes the paper with a collection of aphorisms that he developed while observing reoccurring patterns in his research. Such key observations include that all treatments of obesity produce variable, yet unpredictable weight losses, and that food intake activates pleasurable or pseudo-addictive pathways, making the control of food intake difficult.  

Throughout his extensive career, Dr. Bray has gained international recognition for his pioneering research of obesity and diabetes on both the experimental and clinical levels. His leadership at Pennington Biomedical grew the facility from a handful or researchers and a modest budget to worldclass research center, resplendent with advanced laboratories, equipment, 70 scientists, nearly 500 total employees and a multimillion-dollar budget. He also ranks among the most cited scientists globally, according to the Google Scholar Citations database.

For more information contact:

Joe Coussan, Media Relations Manager, [email protected] , 225-763-3049 or Ernie Ballard, Senior Director of Communications & Marketing, [email protected] , 225-263-2677 .

About the Pennington Biomedical Research Center

The Pennington Biomedical Research Center is at the forefront of medical discovery as it relates to understanding the triggers of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and dementia. The Center conducts basic, clinical, and population research, and is a campus of the LSU System. The research enterprise at Pennington Biomedical includes over 530 employees within a network of 44 clinics and research laboratories, and 13 highly specialized core service facilities. Its scientists and physician/scientists are supported by research trainees, lab technicians, nurses, dietitians, and other support personnel. Pennington Biomedical is a state-of-the-art research facility on a 222-acre campus in Baton Rouge. For more information, see www.pbrc.edu .

Pennington Biomedical Research Center 6400 Perkins Road Baton Rouge, LA 70808

Centers & Institutes

Metabolic Basis of Disease Center 

Institute for Dementia Research & Prevention

Louisiana Clinical & Translational Science Center

Nutrition Obesity Research Center

Metamor Institute

Center for Military Performance & Resilience

Childhood Obesity and Diabetes Research  

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This University of Utah medical school alum runs the largest biomedical research institute in the world

It was a full circle moment.

Dr. Monica Bertagnolli, director of the National Institutes of Health, sat on the dais Friday taking in commencement exercises for the University of Utah’s Spencer Fox School of Medicine’s class of 2024.

Thirty-nine years ago, Bertagnolli was sitting among her medical school classmates for her own medical school graduation ceremony at the University of Utah. There were fewer than 10 women in her graduating class in 1985. This year, 54% of the graduating class are women.

After medical school, Bertagnolli trained in surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and was a research fellow in tumor immunology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. She is the first woman to lead the institute’s surgical oncology division.

She has been at the forefront of the field of clinical oncology. Her research focuses on the genetic mutations that lead to gastrointestinal cancer and how inflammation stimulates cancer.

Prior to her appointment as the director of the National Institutes of Health in 2023, Bertagnolli was director of the National Cancer Institute. NIH is the largest biomedical research institute in the world. It has 27 institutes and centers and has an annual budget of more than $47 billion.

Bertagnolli, who delivered the commencement address, reflected on significant advances in the treatments for hemophilia and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or AIDS, since she graduated from medical school.

“We celebrate that for a disease that was formerly highly debilitating and sometimes lethal, the life expectancy for people in the United States with hemophilia is now equal to that of the general population and we can now entertain the possibility of a cure,” she said.

In the early 1980s, when Bertagnolli started medical school, an AIDS diagnosis “was considered a death sentence,” she said.

“We did not know what to do to treat it or how to prevent its spread,” she said.

It wasn’t until the mid-1980s that a blood test to detect the human immunodeficiency virus was widely available in the United States.

Despite public health campaigns intended to contain HIV spread, new diagnoses and fatalities rapidly escalated in the United States and around the world.

“In June 1995, the FDA approved the first protease inhibitor targeting HIV replication and just six months later came the first combination regimen targeting viral replication. ... AIDS diagnoses and deaths began to fall almost immediately,” she said.

Treatments have continued to advance with the development of antiretroviral and pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, drugs.

“As a result, mortality rates for those infected with HIV have now approached that of the general population,” Bertagnolli said.

While there have been many advances in medical science over the years and new tools at researchers’ disposal, many challenges remain to develop treatments and perhaps cures for diseases that continue to vex researchers.

For example, some 35 million people in the United States suffer from rare diseases, many of which are tied to mutation of a single gene, Bertagnolli said.

“How do we scale the development of gene therapy to meet the needs of those with rare diseases? If we succeed, how do we pay for this? This is the hope that so many have been looking for and we can’t let them down,” she said.

Today’s researchers have exciting tools that help increase the pace of developing treatments or vaccines, she said.

One significant technological advance has been the electronic health record, which has had broad adoption across the country.

“It’s a way when each of us goes to see a doctor, it has information about us, what happened, what our health was, how we were treated and that gets recorded. One of the things we’re working on at the NIH and across all of the Health and Human Services Department is to develop ways where we can use the information coming from the electronic health record and every clinical visit as a way of improving health,” she said.

Online shoppers are keenly aware that e-commerce merchants track their purchases. “They know exactly who we are and what we’re interested in,” she said.

Medical researchers can use that same technology in a respectful way, with people’s permission, “which I also am pretty passionate about. I don’t think we should be doing research with people’s health information unless we have their direct permission. So with people’s permission, it’s being able to use this technology to benefit everyone,” said Bertagnolli, who grew up on a ranch in southwest Wyoming and earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Princeton University.

Trust plays a significant role in use of the data and encouraging patients to try new treatments or vaccines.

During the pandemic, some people balked at vaccination, which Bertagnolli said was understandable considering the pandemic’s disruption of people’s lives, concerns that some people who were vaccinated still got COVID-19, and medical science’s evolving understanding of the virus.

Even though some people contracted COVID-19 after vaccination, they tended to have milder cases. The vaccines also provide relief for some patients with “long COVID.”

But deciding whether to get vaccinated is personal.

“I wouldn’t want to go to somebody who really really really didn’t want to take a vaccine and try and convince them otherwise. That’s just not appropriate. People get to decide based on whatever their belief systems are, what is right for them. That’s their decision. But what I would do instead is really try to get their trust for other things,” she said.

“‘Are there other things that you that can directly benefit from, that you can be a research partner for?’ We certainly don’t build trust by preaching to people or giving out public service announcements. We build trust by being present, being respectful and helping people get what they need. Research that meets the needs of the individual people, that really delivers for them, is going to build this trust.”

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What Jobs Can You Get With A Biology Degree - A New Scientist Careers Guide

• Career guides

“What can I do with a biology degree?” is a question biology students often ask themselves. Everything from microscopic proteins and the DNA within the cells of all living organisms to how we interact with complex ecological systems on Earth falls under the realm of biology. Some of the major types of biology include molecular biology , anatomy, physiology and ecology .

With science becoming more interdisciplinary, new careers in biology are emerging as well. Indeed, a degree in biology provides you with knowledge and skills highly relevant to countless industries. 

Graduating from the best universities for biology in the UK, as ranked in the 2024 league table by the Complete University Guide, can lead to lucrative career opportunities. Top universities include Cambridge, University College London (UCL), Oxford, Imperial College London and Durham.

Popular areas where your biology degree will be highly valued include pure biology and life sciences , clinical science , technology and engineering , and environmental science . This article discusses the top three highest paying jobs with a biology degree in each of these fields.

Pure biology and life sciences

Traditional jobs for biology graduates typically involve teaching, research or health promotion. In these fields, you could inspire future biological scientists and conduct high-impact research. With experience and excellence, you could even become a pioneer in whichever area you work in, helping progress the field of biology as a whole.  

• Headteacher

Job role: Headteachers run schools and ensure their success. They are the face of the school and they set out the school’s values and agenda, devise strategies for areas of improvement, comply with health and safety standards, manage finances and foster relationships with students, parents, teachers and, sometimes, politicians. You can still continue to teach biology as a headteacher.

Route: With a biology degree, you could start teaching biology at school once you complete the qualified teacher status (QTS). Get involved with senior roles within your school and help with running the school. Ideally, complete the National Professional Qualification for Headship. After several years of experience as a senior teacher, you could become a headteacher. 

Average salary (experienced): £131,000  

• Professor of biology

Job role: Teaching biological sciences at higher education level is no small feat. Senior lecturers and academics at universities are typically pioneers in their area of interest and have contributed greatly to research, especially at renowned institutions.

Route: Once you have graduated with a BSc in biology, you usually need a Master’s to enter a PhD programme. After working as a research scientist, getting involved in lecturing and doing high-impact research as a postdoc for several years, you could apply for professorship. Senior academics usually end up doing research in a niche area of biology.

Average salary (experienced): £55,000; over £100,000 at certain universities e.g. Cambridge  

• Sports physiologist

Job role: Sports and exercise scientists apply their knowledge of human physiology to help people enhance their sporting performance and improve their overall health. Their working environment may include sports centres, hospitals or research facilities. Many work privately, seeing a range of clients including athletes.

Route: A degree in physiology or biology is typically required; a Master’s or PhD specifically in sports physiology or exercise science can further enhance your employability. After you have established a good reputation, you could manage your own consulting company or work exclusively for high-profile athletes.

Average salary (experienced): £60,000

Naturally, biology is at the heart of medicine and healthcare . Expertise in fields such as genetics , microbiology and biochemistry are driving innovation in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. If you completed a biology degree, you could do a Master’s, clinical training or placements to qualify for a range of clinical careers.  

• Pathologist

Job role: Pathologists process and examine tissue samples collected from patients to aid the diagnosis of medical conditions. They work with high-tech machines and microscopes and are usually based in hospital labs.

Route: Relevant undergraduate degrees include biology or biomedical science. To work in the NHS, you must enrol onto the Scientist Training Programme (STP) and register with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). You could additionally complete Higher Specialist Scientist Training (HSST) to obtain consultant status.

Average salary (experienced): £69,000

• Clinical scientist

Job role: Clinical scientists can work in a range of specialisms, such as neurophysiology, cardiac science or microbiology. They form a crucial part of a multidisciplinary team to deliver healthcare efficiently and safely. Your exact duties will depend on your chosen career path and may include working as a laboratory technician or seeing patients and performing tests.

Route: This job also involves completion of the STP and HCPC registration, and, optionally, HSST for consultancy. A biology degree is broad enough to allow you to move into most specialisms in clinical science. As a senior clinical scientist, you could take on managerial roles in your department or apply your expertise in biotech , e.g. quality control or research and development.

Average salary (experienced): £68,000

Job role: Geneticists analyse the genomics in all living organisms, but in a clinical setting their focus is limited to human genetics. They study genes involved in health and disease to help medical teams diagnose and offer targeted therapies for genetic conditions and cancers. 

Route: Relevant pre-STP degrees include genetics, biology or other life sciences. A Master’s or PhD is the norm, particularly in academic research. With experience, you could manage genomic research departments, become a professor or move into industries, e.g. the pharmaceutical sector.

Average salary (experienced): £58,000

Technology and engineering

As with most industries, research, medicine and agriculture are becoming heavily reliant on technology. Fields such as biotechnology, bioinformatics and biomedical engineering require excellent knowledge of biology as well as engineering and physics principles. As such, biology graduates with an interest in technological innovation can play a vital role in the biotech sector.

• Data scientist

Job role: Data science is one of the highest paying jobs in tech, particularly in life sciences that deal with large amounts of complex data. Data scientists with a background in biology perform complex data analysis for universities, research facilities or biotech companies with the aim of providing actionable insight.

Route: After a biology degree, you could either do a Master’s in data science or gain relevant experience to land a junior position. Learning advanced methods relating to machine learning and artificial intelligence can significantly boost your job prospects. With experience, you could become a principal data scientist at a biotech firm or an independent consultant data scientist.

Average salary (experienced): £82,500

• Software engineer

Job role: Software engineers with a background in biology design, build and test software for use in biological research at hospitals, labs or biotech firms. They ensure their programme meets their clients’ needs and troubleshoot any potential errors.

Route: A biology degree puts you in a good position to apply to biotech firms for junior positions as employers often prefer candidates with in-depth knowledge of the field. To gain programming skills, you can do a Master’s in software development or become self-taught. With experience, you could move into consultancy or run your own business.

Average salary (experienced): £70,000

• Biomedical engineer

Job role: Biomedical engineering combines principles from biology, physics and engineering to design medical machines and equipment, ranging from prosthetics and implants to surgical robots and scanners. Those in this field often conduct research to build new products to be used in healthcare.

Route: An undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering is the traditional route, but you can still enter this field with a biology degree if you do a relevant Master’s or gain relevant experience, e.g. working as a biological technician. 

As a senior biomedical engineer working in a specialised area, e.g. bionic eyes, you could move into industry and take on managerial roles in health-tech companies. You could also work for the NHS if you complete the STP and register with the HCPC.

Average salary (experienced): £50,000

Environmental and animal care

Biologists working in the environmental and animal care sector offer immense value when it comes to tackling global challenges such as sustainability, conservation , biodiversity and restoration. Environmental scientists can help shape policies and practices aimed at preserving natural environments and safeguarding animal welfare , ensuring a better, greener world.  

Job role: Agronomists supervise agricultural operations and offer guidance to farmers on enhancing soil health and increasing crop yields. Working environments include farms, laboratories and offices. They research soil properties, fertilisers and other substances, and innovate new farming techniques.

Route: A degree in biology with exposure to agriculture is typically sufficient to secure junior positions. Some employers prefer candidates with postgraduate qualifications in certain areas, e.g. crop technology. You could move into consultancy if you become a specialist in advanced methods such as laser weeding.

• Environmental consultant

Job role: Eco consultants investigate the effects of an organisation’s activities on the climate and vice versa. They provide guidance to organisations or governmental bodies on green energy, waste management and environmental regulations. 

Route: After your biology degree, ideally with a focus on ecology, you could complete a Master’s in environmental science to maximise your chances of landing a job and reaching consultancy level quickly. The Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) may be of interest, as it offers postgraduate courses with academic and industrial research projects. With experience, you could become a chartered consultant.

Job role: Zoologists explore animals and their behaviours and may work in academia, wildlife conservation or government. They develop specialisation in one field, such as entomology (insects), ornithology (birds), herpetology (reptiles) or marine biology . Tasks vary based on the sector, but typically involve applying research methods in the field or laboratory to study animals.

Route: Aim to focus on zoology for your biology degree and gain exposure to wildlife conservation. A Master's or PhD degree can significantly enhance your prospects, particularly if you wish to conduct independent research. As you gain experience, you could manage zoology departments, become a consultant or move into environmental journalism.

Average salary (experienced): £48,000

Biology degrees provide a breadth of knowledge about all living organisms and how they interact with the world surrounding them. This, along with their critical thinking and transferable skills, make biology graduates highly employable across sectors. From analysing molecules in disease to building artificial organs or even conserving endangered species, there is no shortage of jobs involving biology .

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Professor receives Ontario Award of Excellence for promoting inclusive research

Caitlin Mullarkey received the Equality of Opportunity award for developing and leading McMaster’s Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences Summer Scholars Program.

BY Blake Dillon

May 16, 2024

Caitlin Mullarkey, an associate professor in the  department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences , has received an Award of Excellence from the Government of Ontario.

The “Equality of Opportunity” award, presented today by Jill Dunlop, the provincial minister of colleges and universities, recognizes post-secondary faculty and staff who have excelled at creating new opportunities for marginalized and underrepresented groups.

Mullarkey is being recognized for her development and leadership of McMaster’s Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences Summer Scholars Program (SSP), of which she  serves as chair.

Supported by the university’s Global Nexus and Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research , the SSP promotes diversity in STEM research by providing full research scholarships to students who identify as Black, Indigenous, and/or 2SLGBTQIA+.

The scholarships require no previous research experience and cover the costs of virtually anything that could present as a barrier to participation, including training, mentorship, food, housing, transportation, parking and childcare.

“I am delighted that the minister is celebrating Dr. Mullarkey’s critical leadership of our Summer Scholars Program,” says Brian Coombes , chair of the department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences at McMaster.

“This award is not only a deserving recognition of her outstanding leadership, but also of McMaster’s deep commitment to promoting inclusive excellence in research, which allows a program like this to thrive.”

Under Mullarkey’s leadership, the SSP has graduated 17 diverse scholars in just two years, many of whom have gone on to continue their research activities at McMaster.

Several SSP alumni have also been recognized by competitive government and university awards programs, and eight new scholars will participate in the program in 2024.

“While I am so grateful for this recognition, it is the amazing young scholars who deserve credit for making the SSP such a resounding success story,” Mullarkey says.

“I’m immensely proud of our work as a group and I’m very much looking forward to seeing how the SSP grows in the years ahead.”

Mullarkey’s award was presented at a ceremony held at the First Nations Technical Institute in Deseronto, Ont, where 15 awards were announced from a pool of nearly 500 nominations.

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Dear Colleague Letter: Graduate Research Internships at National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NSF-NIBIB/BETA INTERN) Supplemental Funding Opportunity

April 30, 2024

Dear Colleague:

Fostering the growth of a globally competitive and diverse research workforce and advancing the scientific and innovation skills of the Nation is a strategic objective of the National Science Foundation (NSF). The NSF and Center for Biomedical Engineering Technology Acceleration ( BETA ) housed in the National Institutes of Health (NIH)- National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering ( NIBIB ) have entered into a partnership to support the training of graduate students to meet both the NSF's strategic workforce development objectives as well the NIBIB's mission to transform through engineering the understanding of disease and its prevention, detection, diagnosis, and treatment and NIBIB's support of the next generation of diverse, interdisciplinary researchers across the career continuum.

This Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) describes this unique partnership with NIBIB/BETA and is aligned with and conforms with the NSF INTERN opportunity described in the Dear Colleague Letter: Non-Academic Research Internships for Graduate Students (INTERN) Supplemental Funding Opportunity . This DCL is referred to as the NSF - NIBIB/BETA INTERN DCL.

Recipients submitting an INTERN supplemental funding request are required to have a policy or code of conduct that addresses sexual harassment, other forms of harassment, and sexual assault. For more information, read about NSF policies regarding harassment .

SUPPLEMENTAL FUNDING OPPORTUNITY

NSF will consider supplemental funding requests that enable a Principal Investigator (PI) or co-PI to request up to six months of additional support for a graduate student supported on an active NSF award with the following goals:

• To provide graduate students with the opportunity to augment their research assistantships or NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) fellowships with non-academic research internship activities and training opportunities that will complement their academic research training.
• To allow graduate students to engage in professional development experiences that will enhance their preparation for multiple career pathways after graduation.
• To encourage the participation of the full spectrum of diverse talent in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

ELIGIBILITY

Recipients with awards that include funding for graduate students, including institutional Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) awards, are eligible to submit a supplemental funding request. The PI for an active GRFP fellowship (not the GRFP fellow) should contact GRFP ( [email protected] ) regarding specific requirements before submitting a supplemental funding request on behalf of a GRFP fellow.

To be supported through an INTERN supplement responding to this DCL, graduate students (including graduate research fellows) being considered must have completed at least one academic year in their graduate programs (master's or doctoral), be in good academic standing and demonstrate satisfactory progress towards their research.

INTERNSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

PIs and co-PIs of NSF grants and the research advisor of the GRFP fellows are encouraged to contact Dr. Manu Platt ( [email protected] ) at NIBIB/BETA, to explore suitable opportunities for research traineeships at NIBIB/BETA in Bethesda, Maryland, for the graduate students who are supported on their NSF grants.

SUPPLEMENTAL FUNDING REQUEST PREPARATION INSTRUCTIONS

Information about requesting supplemental support is contained in the NSF Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide ( PAPPG ), Chapter VI.E.5. In addition to the PAPPG requirements for supplemental support, the following materials must be included.

• A two-page summary that describes the internship
• A one-page personal statement from the graduate student describing career goals, accomplishments, and how the activity will better prepare the individual to enter the workforce.
• Research summary to include contribution(s) to research discipline
• Institution(s)
• Year of study (1st year, 2nd year, etc.)
• Completed coursework
• Employment and volunteer/outreach history
• Publications (accepted only)
• Other information relevant to the proposed internship
• A letter of collaboration from an authorized official at the host organization that describes the internship opportunity and mentoring the student will experience during the internship.
• An endorsement letter from the PI that confirms that the student meets the eligibility requirements specified in this DCL. The letter must describe how the proposed internship activity will contribute to the student's graduate education experience and how it may impact time to degree.
• A budget and a clear justification for all requested budget costs.

SUPPLEMENTAL FUNDING AMOUNT

The total amount of funding requested must not exceed $55,000 per student for one six-month period. NSF plans to fund about 5-10 supplements per fiscal year, depending on the availability of funds.

PERIOD OF SUPPORT

The supplement funding will provide up to six months of support for an internship. Note: only one supplemental funding request may be submitted for a given student. A PI or co-PI may submit no more than one request per year of their award if there are multiple graduate students supported by the award, with the exception that GRFP will consider requests for internships for more than one GRFP Fellow from a single GRFP award.

Supplemental funding requests may be submitted at any time.

SUBMISSION AND REVIEW

Requests for supplemental funding must be submitted via Research.gov. A PI or Co-PI with an NSF award should contact the program director who manages the award prior to submission. GRFP INTERN supplement requests are submitted by the GRFP PI, not by the GRFP fellow or the fellow's research advisor. Requests for supplemental funding submitted in response to this DCL will be reviewed internally by NSF program directors. All supplements are subject to (a) the availability of funds and (b) merit review of the supplemental funding request.

SPECIAL AWARD CONDITION

Intellectual Property Rights: Internships under this DCL are considered equivalent to traineeships. The National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering claims no rights to any inventions or writings that might result from its traineeship awards. However, trainees should be aware that NSF, another Federal agency, or some private party may acquire such rights through other support for particular research. Also, trainees should note their obligation to include an Acknowledgment and Disclaimer in any publication.

For further information, please contact: Dr. Prakash Balan, [email protected] .

Susan Marqusee, Assistant Director Directorate for Biological Sciences (BIO)

Dilma Da Silva, Acting Assistant Director Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE)

James L. Moore III, Acting Assistant Director Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EDU)

Susan Margulies, Assistant Director Directorate for Engineering (ENG)

Alexandra Isern, Assistant Director Directorate for Geosciences (GEO)

C. Denise Caldwell, Acting Assistant Director Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS)

Alicia Knoedler, Office Head Office of Integrative Activities (OIA)

Kendra Sharp, Office Head Office of International Science and Engineering (OISE)

Sylvia M. Butterfield, Assistant Director Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE)

Erwin Gianchandani, Assistant Director Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnership (TIP)

Fralin Biomedical Research Institute’s new lab will take aim at tobacco use, cancer rates, and informing policy

Roberta Freitas-Lemos wants to provide policymakers with research-informed strategies to influence health behavior and lower cancer rates related to tobacco, one of the world’s biggest public health threats.

Leigh Anne Kelley

17 Apr 2024

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As a new faculty research team leader at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, Assistant Professor Roberta Freitas-Lemos seeks to improve health equity in controlling and preventing cancer, particularly as it relates to tobacco use. Photo by Clayton Metz for Virginia Tech.

Open-water swimming requires athletes to take into account a wide number of variables.  Roberta Freitas-Lemos  said when she’s in the ocean, temperature fluctuations, murky conditions, and the motion of the waves make it a challenging sport, both physically and mentally.

Complexity also characterizes Freitas-Lemos’ research at the  Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC , where she works at the intersection of tobacco use, health equity, and cancer. How do market and regulatory changes affect health behavior? How do variables such as pricing and product mix influence what substances, or therapies, people turn to? And how do those choices moderate or amplify health disparities?

On April 1, Freitas-Lemos began her new position as a group leader and assistant professor with the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute and is establishing her independent research program within its Center for Health Behaviors Research and the Cancer Research Center in Roanoke. She is also a tenure-track assistant professor in the Department of Psychology in the  College of Science .

Her focus is tobacco, the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the U.S. and the cause of more than 8 million deaths annually worldwide. She is swimming in the deep end of what the World Health Organization calls one of the world’s greatest public health threats.

Her research program uses behavioral economics and tools such as the Experimental Tobacco Marketplace to provide insight into policies and products that can help reduce smoking and improve lives through large-scale intervention.

“I want to be able to use findings from the marketplace to inform policy,” Freitas-Lemos said. “That’s the important gap that we have right now — getting scientifically grounded data to inform how to reduce cancer rates.”

Her work is supported by a five-year, $680,000  career-development award  from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health.

Blazing trails in Brazil

Before joining the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute, Freitas-Lemos spent 15 years in Brazil working on various government programs to improve people’s lives using behavioral principles.

Her early experience was with at-risk adolescents, communities dealing with substance use, families struggling with poverty, and Indigenous populations and traditional communities facing challenges in health care information and access.

At one point she was working for the state government of Acre, in the northwest part of the country bordering Peru and Bolivia. “I went to live in the Amazon. It was a very simple life. I actually enjoyed it a lot,” she said. “It was there I saw how one action from the government can impact so many people.”

She became a consultant and policy analyst for the federal government’s Ministry of Health, Ministry of Human Rights, and Ministry of Social Development, turning her attention to such topics as the Venezuelan migration crisis, child protection, addiction, gender equity, and the Zika virus. 

“All these emerging topics needed fast solutions. Tobacco was a problem across all programs, and all populations,” she said. “I saw the harmful effects of tobacco, and how difficult it was for scientists to inform decision-making.”

She earned a doctorate in behavioral sciences from the University of Brasília, where she was exposed to the work of Professor Warren Bickel, director of the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute’s  Addiction Recovery Research Center  and  Center for Health Behaviors Research .

Bickel and Rudy E. Vuchinich were co-editors of “Reframing Health Behavior Change with Behavioral Economics,” a book that gave Freitas-Lemos a new perspective on how science-informed public policy could influence health and well-being. “I read their chapter and thought it was brilliant,” she said. “I thought I should train under Bickel and understand what could be done with behavioral economics.”

She joined the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute as a postdoctoral associate in 2019.

Tobacco and cancer

A primary focus of her approach has been the Experimental Tobacco Marketplace, which Bickel developed to study the effect of tax and regulatory policy on nicotine purchases.

In the marketplace, study participants use an online account to purchase tobacco and replacement therapy products based on their reported use. Researchers adjust the product mix and pricing on an Amazon-like interface to predict their effects on purchase behavior.

“I want not only to examine policies proposed by government, but create novel and unexplored policies and integrate findings with population-based modeling," Freitas-Lemos said. "That will allow me to project cancer rates and conduct the cost-benefit analysis needed to quantifiably understand the trade-offs related to implementation, disparities, and long-term health.

“From my work with policymakers in Brazil, I know that they need very specific numbers," she said. "Will policies mean that people are going to quit tobacco? Or transition to something else? How many people will be impacted, and how will different interventions impact government spending?”

Freitas-Lemos has conducted research and co-authored a number of studies using the marketplace, including the effect of  e-cigarette restrictions  and  menthol and filter ventilation bans  on illegal purchases as well as the socioeconomic disparities of different tobacco policies. She also has more than three dozen published articles related to behavioral psychology, addiction, episodic future thinking, and social disparities, some informed by her work in Brazil.

In her new role she looks forward to developing methods to investigate health disparities, developing novel polices that are easy to implement, and improving treatment by enhancing the appeal of safer products and testing different interventions for people who use tobacco.

And if her schedule allows, more training may be in the offing. Freitas-Lemos is still in touch with her swimming coach in Brazil, and she has her eye on a February 2025 open-water challenge in Rio.

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• Introduction
• Conclusions
• Article Information

The areas of the bubbles reflect the relative amount of research funding allocated by each National Institutes of Health institute. Only institutes that granted more than 100 awards during the study period are shown. AHRQ indicates Agency for Health Research and Quality; NCI, National Cancer Institute; NCRR, National Center for Research Resources; NEI, National Eye Institute; NHGRI, National Human Genome Research Institute; NHLBI, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; NIA, National Institute on Aging; NIAAA, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism; NIAID, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; NIAMS, National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases; NIBIB, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; NICHD, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development; NIDA, National Institute on Drug Abuse; NIDCD, National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders; NIDCR, National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research; NIDDK, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases; NIEHS, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences; NIGMS, National Institute of General Medical Sciences; NIMH, National Institute of Mental Health; NINDS, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke; NINR, National Institute of Nursing Research; and NLM, National Library of Medicine.

AGR indicates annual growth rate; NIH, National Institutes of Health.

The areas of the bubbles reflect the relative amount of National Institutes of Health research funding allocated to each category of artificial intelligence applications.

eMethods. Detailed Methods

eTable 1. Framework for Defining Artificial Intelligence

eFigure 1. Natural Language Processing Pipeline

eFigure 2. Empiric Selection of the Number of Clusters (K) for k-Means Algorithm

eFigure 3. NIH Funding for Artificial Intelligence by Year

eTable 2. NIH Funding for Artificial Intelligence and Translatability by NIH Institute

eTable 3. Validation of k-Means Generated Topics Against NIH, Condition, and Disease Categories

eTable 4. Validation of k-Means Generated Topics Against Manual Topic Assignment

eTable 5. Centroids for Each k-Means Generated Topic

eTable 6. Representative Awards From Each Cluster of Artificial Intelligence Applications in Biomedical Research

eTable 7. National Institutes of Health Funding for Artificial Intelligence by Funding Mechanism

eTable 8. Funding Mechanism Frequencies Among National Institutes of Health–Funded Artificial Intelligence Applications in Biomedical Research

eTable 9. Comparison of National Institutes of Health Funding Mechanism Frequency for the Four Most Common Funding Mechanisms, by Pairwise General Application Categories

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Eweje FR , Byun S , Chandra R, et al. Translatability Analysis of National Institutes of Health–Funded Biomedical Research That Applies Artificial Intelligence. JAMA Netw Open. 2022;5(1):e2144742. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.44742

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Translatability Analysis of National Institutes of Health–Funded Biomedical Research That Applies Artificial Intelligence

• 1 Students, Perelman School of Medicine at University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
• 2 Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland
• 3 Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
• 4 Department of Diagnostic Imaging, Rhode Island Hospital and Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island

Question   Which applications of artificial intelligence (AI) in biomedical research could generate the most translational value (ie, ability to lead to development that has measurable value for human health)?

Findings   In this cohort study using bibliometric analysis, 2 citation-based metrics were used as proxies for translational impact, and 75 unique medical applications of AI were identified from a set of 16 629 National Institutes of Health awards related to AI, using natural language processing. Varied applications were found to have high translatability, but bias against applications in basic biochemical analysis was evident.

Meaning   These findings suggest that National Institutes of Health award data applications of AI in biomedical research are not equivalent: some demonstrate greater potential for translational impact than others.

Importance   Despite the rapid growth of interest and diversity in applications of artificial intelligence (AI) to biomedical research, there are limited objective ways to characterize the potential for use of AI in clinical practice.

Objective   To examine what types of medical AI have the greatest estimated translational impact (ie, ability to lead to development that has measurable value for human health) potential.

Design, Setting, and Participants   In this cohort study, research grants related to AI awarded between January 1, 1985, and December 31, 2020, were identified from a National Institutes of Health (NIH) award database. The text content for each award was entered into a Natural Language Processing (NLP) clustering algorithm. An NIH database was also used to extract citation data, including the number of citations and approximate potential to translate (APT) score for published articles associated with the granted awards to create proxies for translatability.

Exposures   Unsupervised assignment of AI-related research awards to application topics using NLP.

Main Outcomes and Measures   Annualized citations per $1 million funding (ACOF) and average APT score for award-associated articles, grouped by application topic. The APT score is a machine-learning based metric created by the NIH Office of Portfolio Analysis that quantifies the likelihood of future citation by a clinical article.

Results   A total of 16 629 NIH awards related to AI were included in the analysis, and 75 applications of AI were identified. Total annual funding for AI grew from $17.4 million in 1985 to $1.43 billion in 2020. By average APT, interpersonal communication technologies (0.488; 95% CI, 0.472-0.504) and population genetics (0.463; 95% CI, 0.453-0.472) had the highest translatability; environmental health (ACOF, 1038) and applications focused on the electronic health record (ACOF, 489) also had high translatability. The category of applications related to biochemical analysis was found to have low translatability by both metrics (average APT, 0.393; 95% CI, 0.388-0.398; ACOF, 246).

Conclusions and Relevance   Based on this study's findings, data on grants from the NIH can apparently be used to identify and characterize medical applications of AI to understand changes in academic productivity, funding support, and potential for translational impact. This method may be extended to characterize other research domains.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential for transformational changes in health care. As early as the 1980s, 1 it was understood that AI tools could eventually play a major role as expert consultants to physicians by using insights from data that may not be deemed actionable by human interpretation. From convolutional neural networks for imaging-based solid organ cancer screening 2 - 4 to natural language processing (NLP) to estimate the probability of diagnoses with data from the electronic health record, 5 - 7 the breadth of AI-powered technologies affecting our understanding of human health and health care delivery processes has rapidly expanded in recent years. 8

Yet despite the exponential growth in academic research involving AI in medicine, 9 it remains difficult to understand which applications have been associated with the greatest clinical impact and which applications have the greatest potential for future impact. Maximizing clinical translation (ie, ability to lead to development that has measurable value for human health) is a challenge for AI-powered biomedical research with many hurdles limiting innovations, including prospective studies, external cohort generalization, and difficulties integrating into existing clinical workflow. 10 - 12 This problem has been described as the growing excitement around AI in health care despite limited examples of ways AI has tangibly changed clinical practice. 13 , 14

A potential means of characterizing translation of AI is through research funding and related bibliometric data provided by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). As the world’s largest public funder of health research, the NIH has among its mandates to “expand the knowledge base in medical and associated sciences...and ensure continued high return on the public investment in research.” 15 Studies have used NIH grant data to investigate academic productivity and translational value in biomedical research, from studying patent generation per unit of NIH funding to investigating the contribution of NIH funding in new drug approvals. 16 , 17 Another study analyzed NIH funding for machine learning, but did not assess translational value. 18 However, it has been reported that unsupervised NLP (ie, automatic generation of document categories without a priori knowledge) can segment NIH awards by topic similarity using text descriptions of the awards. 19

By combining elements of each of these analyses, including translational value metrics, focus on AI-related NIH awards, and unsupervised NLP, it may be possible to quantifiably address the issue of which applications of AI have the greatest potential translational impact. In this cohort study, we strictly define the scope of AI applications in health care using unsupervised categorization of NIH awards and use bibliometric data provided by the NIH to investigate potential translational impact of various applications.

The NIH Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools Expenditures and Results (RePORTER) search engine was queried for awards related to AI from January 1, 1985, to December 31, 2020, using a query of AI-related terms (eTable 1 and eMethods in the Supplement , defining artificial intelligence). Awards under activity codes T (training programs) and Z (intramural awards to NIH institutes) were excluded from the analysis because these awards often do not detail a focused area of proposed study. Subprojects, individual projects within multicomponent award applications, were also excluded from analysis. In addition, the RePORTER query returns a collection of academic articles that were produced in relation to the awards. These data include PubMed identification numbers, which were used to separately query the NIH iCite platform 20 for citation information related to these articles. This cohort study involved nonhuman data and, per Common Rule 45 CFR 46.116(d)(4), was exempted from institutional review board review and the requirement for informed consent. This study followed the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology ( STROBE ) reporting guideline for cohort studies.

eFigure 1 in the Supplement depicts the NLP pipeline. The title, abstract, and public health relevance statement from each award were combined as the input for text analysis. Stop words, which are common words with little semantic value (eg, the), were removed. Training features consisted of lemmatized unigrams (1-word sequences) and bigrams (2-word sequences) vectorized with term frequency-inverse document frequency (TF-IDF) weighting. Terms present across more than 10% of the document corpus were excluded from the feature set. The feature set was further narrowed to the 500 terms with the highest TF-IDF values summed across the corpus.

The topic identification algorithm was implemented with k-means clustering—an unsupervised machine learning algorithm that identifies clusters of related data points based on minimization of geometric distance between points assigned to a given cluster. As such, awards were assigned to the single topic that best characterized the text content of the award. The k-means algorithm was implemented with minibatches, 21 in which multiple iterations with randomly selected partitions of the data set are conducted with each trial, with a batch size of 1024 and 100 iterations. The constant denoting of the number of clusters (K) was empirically determined by monitoring the silhouette score, a metric that reflects minimization of the mean intracluster distance and maximization of the mean nearest-cluster distance, with modulation of K (eFigure 2 in the Supplement ). After K was selected, 50 training trials were conducted to create the final clusters, with the trial that maximized the silhouette coefficient chosen as the representative output.

Each cluster created by the k-means algorithm was manually assigned a descriptive label based on the words selected as cluster-characteristic features by the algorithm and the content of award abstracts assigned to the cluster. Clusters with a silhouette score less than 0 (indicating poor assignment of the constituent awards) were excluded from further analysis. To validate the cluster topics, 2 of us (S.B. and R.C.) blinded to the awards’ cluster assignments manually assigned 200 randomly selected awards according to the k-means–defined topics. We also determined the fraction of awards in select k-means categories that were assigned to similarly defined research, condition, and disease categories, categories of research funding first generated by the NIH in 2008 (eMethods in the Supplement , cluster validation).

The overall award sample was characterized by comparing awards granted in 2008 and earlier with awards granted in 2009 and later, which is an inflection point corresponding with the passage of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) act in the US. 22 We applied log-likelihood ratios of document frequency to the TF-IDF feature set to determine the 10 most comparatively enriched terms within the 2 time periods.

Two metrics were used to quantify the likelihood of translational clinical impact based on articles associated with each NIH award. These metrics were applied to 3 collections of data: awards grouped by the funding NIH institute (eg, National Cancer Institute, National Institute on Aging), k-means–identified individual applications of AI, and applications grouped by general category. First, we calculated annualized citations per $1 million of funding (ACOF). For example, an article receiving 100 citations during 5 years received 20 annualized citations. Second, we calculated the average approximate potential to translate (APT) score for associated articles. The APT is a metric created by the NIH Office of Portfolio Analysis that has been demonstrated to be predictive of the likelihood of future citation by a clinical research article as an indicator of translation. Generated using a machine learning approach, the APT score is based on a data set of more than 9 million published biomedical research articles and outperformed academic experts in predicting clinical translation. 23

We also sought to characterize funding growth for each identified application of AI. An exponential fit was made of each cluster’s annual funding over the study period to evaluate the estimated annual growth rate. In addition, to identify significant proportionality differences between general application categories by funding mechanism (eg, R01), the distributions of awards by funding mechanism were compared using exact binomial tests at significance level α = .05 with post hoc Bonferroni correction. All values with uncertainty are reported with a 95% CI. All analyses were conducted using Python, version 3.8 (Python Software Foundation). All code used to conduct analyses in this study is publicly available.

Table 1 describes the sample of awards, characterized as pre-HITECH and post-HITECH. A total of 16 629 awards were identified for inclusion in the study. The awards totaled $7 177 080 553 in funding and had associated articles with an average APT of 0.422 (95% CI, 0.421-0.423) and ACOF of 301. The average APT significantly increased between the pre- and post-HITECH periods (0.390 vs 0.433; P  < .001), but the ACOF decreased by 38% (from 444 to 275). The most enriched TF-IDF features by log-likelihood ratio included lesion , physician , and interpretation pre-HITECH and ehr , big , and deep post-HITECH. Overall funding grew from $17.4 million in 1985 to $1.43 billion in 2020 (eFigure 3 in the Supplement ).

The ACOF and average APT among NIH institutes are shown in Figure 1 and eTable 2 in the Supplement . Among institutes that granted more than 100 AI-related awards over the study period, the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences funded the most translatable awards by ACOF (n, 392). Other high translatability institutes by ACOF included the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (ACOF, 190) and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (ACOF, 157). The National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (average APT, 0.445; 95% CI, 0.417-0.473) and National Eye Institute (average APT, 0.441; 95% CI, 0.426-0.455) produced the most translatable awards by average APT. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and Office of the Director, institutes with research supportive missions, had the lowest translatability by both metrics.

Of the total 16 629 awards, 12 459 were sorted into 75 meaningfully descript applications of AI applications in biomedical research ( Table 2 ); the remaining awards were assigned to clusters with silhouette scores less than 0 (ie, ill-defined topic assignments). The defined applications showed frequent overlap with the research, condition, and disease categories (eTable 3 in the Supplement ) and fair to moderate agreement in award assignment with the manual raters (eTable 4 in the Supplement ). Cluster-characteristic terms (eTable 5 in the Supplement ) and a list of awards representative of each cluster (eTable 6 in the Supplement ) were also described.

The clusters were further grouped by general application categories. Some categories were clinically focused, such as neurologic disease, cancer, and mental health, and others were technically focused, such as data types and model types. The estimated annual growth rate for NIH-funded AI research overall was 0.274 (95% CI, 0.24-0.309), with the fastest growing application categories including kidney disease (0.733; 95% CI, 0.637-0.829), neurologic disease (0.457; 95% CI, 0.429-0.485), and population health (0.419; 95% CI, 0.384-0.453) ( Figure 2 ). Applications with low estimated annual growth rate included training and education (0.099; 95% CI, 0.069-0.130), biochemical analysis (0.109; 95% CI, 0.086-0.131), and vision (0.120; 95% CI, 0.100-0.140).

The 4 most frequent funding mechanisms in the award sample were R01 (investigator-initiated research projects, 48% of all awards), U01 (research project cooperative agreements between the funding NIH institute and investigators, 4.8%), R44 (small business innovation research grants, 4.2%), and R21 (exploratory/developmental research grants, 6.8%) (eTable 7 in the Supplement ). Application categories that tended to have a higher proportion of R01 grants include biochemical analysis (53.3%), genetics (55.9%), and language and communication (59.0%). The cancer (10.5%) and hepatic disease (19.5%) categories tended to have a higher proportion of U01 grants than other categories (eTable 8 and eTable 9 in the Supplement ).

Translatability was assessed at both the specific application ( Table 2 ) and general category ( Figure 3 ) levels. General categories, such as liver disease (average APT, 0.459; 95% CI, 0.441-0.477), kidney disease (average APT, 0.436; 95% CI, 0.422-0.451), and the electronic health record (average APT, 0.431; 95% CI, 0.424-0.439), had high translatability. Specific applications with high APT included interpersonal communication technologies (average APT, 0.488; 95% CI, 0.472-0.504) and population genetics (average APT, 0.463; 95% CI, 0.453-0.472). The biochemical analysis category (comprising drug discovery, other chemical compound characterization, mass spectroscopy, cell signaling pathways, and small molecule interactions as applications) had the lowest translatability (average APT, 0.393; 95% CI, 0.388-0.398).

General categories with high translatability by ACOF included environmental health (ACOF, 1038), the electronic health record (ACOF, 489) and knowledge frameworks (ACOF, 482). The biochemical analysis category (ACOF, 246) was determined to be among the least translatable by ACOF as well. At both the specific application and general category levels, applications related to primary care practice were found to have the lowest translatability by ACOF. These areas of primary care included diabetes (ACOF, 114) and metabolic syndrome (ACOF, 171) in the endocrine category and population health screening in the population health category (ACOF, 98).

By applying unsupervised machine learning techniques to text data from NIH-funded AI research grants, we identified meaningful differences in NIH funding trends, funding types, and translational potential for various applications of AI in biomedical research. There was an 80-fold increase in annual NIH funding for AI over the 35-year study period. The terms enriched in the post-HITECH subset of awards, ehr , big (ie, big data), and deep (ie, deep learning), reflect how the widespread adoption of electronic medical records in the 21st century partially catalyzed this expansion by facilitating access to large, multimodal data sets for the development of AI models. 24 Although the average APT increased between the pre- and post-HITECH periods, the ACOF decreased. This discrepancy may be explained by a decrease in the number of breakthrough articles on biomedical AI as the technologies have become more pervasive, but an increase in the potential for such technologies to create clinical value.

Identifying applications of AI with the potential to produce high returns toward the quality and efficiency of health care delivery is necessary. Some NIH institutes seem to have contributed more toward this goal than others. In our analysis, the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, National Eye Institute, and National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering were identified as granting highly translatable awards toward AI. The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering and National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research have successfully implemented academic-industry partnerships to facilitate translation of AI technologies. 25 Among the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences core technologies are machine learning methods for prediction of chemical properties and NLP for extracting knowledge from data in rare diseases. 26 The National Eye Institute has funded the development of an AI imaging technology to detect retinopathy of prematurity that was recently granted breakthrough status by the US Food and Drug Administration. 27

Specific applications that were identified as having high translatable potential include environmental health and interpersonal communication technologies. Interpersonal communication technologies can aid with communication for patients with functional impairments through brain-computer interfaces, hand sign analysis, and eye tracking, among other methods. 28 Environmental health AI can help elucidate how environmental toxin exposures contribute to the development of disease and promote preventive policy and infrastructural changes. 29 , 30

Applications focused on primary care settings seemed to have lower translatability. One such application in diabetes was a proposal to generate policy recommendations that reduce preventive care disparities in patients with diabetes using Medicare claims data and Markov decision process analysis (eTable 5 in the Supplement , detecting, understanding, and reducing diabetes belt preventive care disparities). The population health screening application included studies focused on identifying cost-effective screening methods and developing personalized screening recommendations for colon cancer, among others. 31 , 32 Poor translatability could be because, in the primary care setting, there is an increased need for altered patient and health care professional behavior for these types of AI technologies to make changes. Poor patient adherence to preventive health care measures and poor health care professional adoption of novel screening tools are well-recognized issues. 33 , 34

Applications in the biochemical analysis category (protein structure and binding prediction, drug discovery, other chemical compound characterization, mass spectroscopy, cell signaling pathways, and small molecule interactions) were deemed less translatable by both metrics. Although such applications have an intuitively longer path to clinical utility, these are nonetheless domains in which discoveries can be made that transform our understanding of disease and result in novel methods of diagnosis and treatment. Artificial intelligence to predict protein structure and functional properties from amino acid sequence includes popular models such as AlphaFold (DeepMind), a deep neural network. 35 Analyzing RNA sequence patterns at the cellular level with machine learning models has improved understanding of gene interactions and expression. 36 , 37 Our analysis may be biased against these types of applications in favor of technologies with more immediate potential for translation.

Herein, we present, to our knowledge, a novel method for characterizing estimated biomedical research impact that uses NLP and data from NIH-awarded grants. We applied this approach to segment applications of AI in medicine and analyzed these applications with funding and citation data. The software developed for this study is open-source, making replication of these results and transfer of this method to other domains of interest straightforward. Other subjects could include an analysis of awards related to health disparities to highlight the inequities deemed most pressing based on academic interest or an analysis of what types of COVID-19–related research received the most NIH funding over the course of the pandemic.

This study has limitations. First, although our approach identified a number of recognized medical applications of AI, it is hindered by the lack of a standardized definition of AI. Lack of a standardized definition limits our ability to determine whether our query captured the most complete set of AI-related NIH awards or whether awards were included with aims that could be deemed unrelated to AI. Second, the k-means algorithm is an imperfect method for unsupervised clustering and there was likely varying degrees of topic overlap between the generated clusters. Conversely, the awards that were sorted into ill-defined clusters and subsequently excluded from the application analysis may have been appropriately included in a described cluster or separated into smaller defined clusters should a manual review have been performed. Third, citation counts are an imperfect proxy for research impact: citation of an academic article may also be influenced by author reputation, research domain, negative citations, and self-citations. 38 , 39 Both citation-based translational impact metrics used in this study are simply proxies for the true measure of biomedical research impact: improvement in human health.

Findings from this study suggest that there are numerous applications of AI in biomedical research that are receiving exponentially increasing amounts of grant funding from the NIH, demonstrating varying degrees of estimated translational impact returns. Domains of biomedical research can be categorized using NIH research grant data to understand differences in academic productivity, funding support, and clinical translation.

Accepted for Publication: November 28, 2021.

Published: January 24, 2022. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.44742

Open Access: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC-BY License . © 2022 Eweje FR et al. JAMA Network Open .

Corresponding Authors: Feyisope R. Eweje, SB, Perelman School of Medicine at University of Pennsylvania, 3400 Civic Center Blvd, Bldg 421, 6th Floor Philadelphia, PA 19104 ( [email protected] ); Harrison X. Bai, MD, Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, 601 N Caroline St, Baltimore, MD 21205 ( [email protected] ).

Author Contributions: Mr Eweje had full access to all of the data in the study and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.

Concept and design: Eweje, Byun, Kamel, Zhang, Jiao, Bai.

Acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data: Eweje, Byun, Chandra, Hu.

Drafting of the manuscript: Eweje, Kamel.

Critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content: All authors.

Statistical analysis: Eweje, Byun, Hu, Kamel.

Administrative, technical, or material support: Eweje, Kamel, Bai.

Supervision: Eweje, Kamel, Jiao, Bai.

Conflict of Interest Disclosures: None reported.

Additional Information: The code used to conduct analyses in this study is publicly available at https://github.com/sopeeweje/NLP-AI-Medicine .

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Professor Amrita Ahluwalia elected as Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences

Amrita   Ahluwalia,   Professor of Vascular Pharmacology and   Dean of   Research for   the   Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry   at Queen Mary Universit y of Lo ndon ,   is one of   58 exceptional biomedical and health scientists   elected by the   Academy   to its prestigious Fellowship .  

Professor Amrita Ahluwalia

Professor Ahluwalia has been elected to the Academy for her outstanding work in vascular pharmacology. She joins this year’s other new Fellows, who have all been recognised for their remarkable contributions to advancing biomedical and health sciences, ground-breaking research discoveries, and translating developments into benefits for patients and wider society.  

Amrita is Dean for Research for the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, Lead of the Vascular Pharmacology Group, and Director of the Barts Cardiovascular Clinical Trials Unit . She is Chair of the Basic and Translational Section of The International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology. She is the author of over 340 academic papers, and the focus of her current research is the exploration of the impact of inflammation on cardiovascular function and the mechanisms involved, with a view to identifying novel targets and therapeutics.  

Alongside her ground-breaking research, Professor Ahluwalia is also a passionate advocate for equality in the workplace. She established the first National mentoring scheme for women of a learned society (British Pharmacological Society) in 2005. She was also the first Chair of the Women in Pharmacology Committee of the same society from 2007-2010 that established the Astra Zeneca Women in Pharmacology Prize. She led the award of the first Athena Swan Silver prize for the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, and is the first female EiC of the internationally leading British Journal of Pharmacology (2016-current).    

Professor Ahluwalia said:  "It's a real honour to be elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. I'm really chuffed. Thank you to my proposers for putting me forward - they know who they are!"  

Professor Sir Mark Caulfield, VP Health, said:  “I am delighted that Professor Amrita Ahluwalia, our Dean for Research and Professor of Vascular Pharmacology, has been elected today to the Academy of Medical Sciences today. This is a tremendous recognition of her enormous contribution to cardiovascular pharmacology over many years. Her highly cited work on the role of nitric oxide in treatment of blood pressure, heart failure and coronary disease has had major impact and launched many successful clinical and scientific careers. She has also led important work on women and vascular health. Amrita is unusual in that alongside clinicians she has led major clinical trials and oversees our Cardiovascular Clinical Trials Unit. It gives me particular pleasure to see a colleague with whom I have worked since the mid-nineties in the William Harvey Research Institute celebrated for her major contribution to pharmacology. Everyone in Medicine and Dentistry should feel proud today!”

The  Academy of Medical Sciences  is the independent, expert body representing the diversity of medical science in the UK. Its mission is to advance biomedical and health research and its translation into benefits for society. The Academy's elected Fellows are the most influential scientists in the UK and worldwide, drawn from the NHS, academia, industry and the public service. Fellowship of the Academy is based on exceptional contributions to the medical sciences, either in the form of original discovery or of sustained contributions to scholarship. 

The complete list of 58 new Fellows can be found on the  website of the Academy of Medical Sciences .   

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Six with UB ties receive Fulbright student awards

By Charles Anzalone

Release Date: May 22, 2024

Patrick McDevitt

BUFFALO, N.Y. – Six University at Buffalo students and alumni have won Fulbright awards, the prestigious national scholarship competition for grants to study, research and teach abroad.

“From its inception in 1946, the Fulbright program has been at the forefront of efforts to spread international goodwill and cooperation,” says Patrick McDevitt, Fulbright program adviser, associate professor of history and a 1993 Fulbright grantee to New Zealand.

McDevitt says UB is proud to have a long history of contributing to the Fulbright program by sending some of the university’s brightest graduates overseas to represent the university and the nation.

Students who win these awards often have “life-changing experience” he says, “and build relationships that will stay with them for the remainder of their lives.”

McDevitt says UB submitted 15 applications, nine of which were recommended to the national committees. He also recognized the pivotal support and contributions from UB’s Office of Fellowships and Scholarships, citing in particular director Megan Stewart.

The Fulbright recipients:

Peggy “Pegi” Bakula of Northbrook, Illinois.  A UB doctoral student in linguistics, Bakula will document masalai stories in Yil, a Torricelli language of Papua New Guinea. She will conduct field work in the country, considered the world’s most linguistically diverse, with more than 800 languages belonging to approximately 30 language families.

The objective of Bakula’s project is to document aspects of the cultural heritage of the Yamari people narrated in Yil, their traditional language. While all features of cultural heritage will be chronicled, the focus of the documentation is the Yamari’s masalai stories. The masalai are spirits who hold specific associations with people (clans, descent lines) and places (villages, garden areas, wild bush). Masalai are a component of traditional faith systems in Papua New Guinea before Christianization. By documenting the Yamari masalai stories, their traditional beliefs and language are preserved for future generations.

Bakula is a recipient of a SUNY Arthur A. Schomburg Fellowship (2018-22) and a College of Arts and Sciences Dissertation Fellowship (2022 and 2023). She plans to pursue a career in academia.

Reem Berman of Lackawanna, New York.  Berman earned a bachelor’s degree in public health in 2020 and a master’s in public health in 2023. She received a Fulbright English Teaching Award (ETA) to Saudi Arabia.

Berman says she was motivated to apply for the ETA to Saudi Arabia after witnessing the power of the English language during a visit to the country. She has worked with college students in a variety of capacities, including collaborating with UB’s Experiential Learning Network to lead undergraduates in a virtual project with a nonprofit in Kenya.

Berman also has served as a venture coach, supporting student entrepreneurs. She has taught workshops to groups of 200 students, and has also assisted children with reading through a local public library. She hopes to help create a classroom environment where students are open to sharing their viewpoints. 

Berman is a winner of won both the WNY Prosperity Fellowship and a Blackstone Launchpad Fellowship.

Leah Cabarga of Hamburg, New York.  Cabarga, who received an undergraduate degree in 2023 and master’s degree in education in 2024, both from UB, is the recipient of an ETA to Montenegro.

Cabarga says she decided to pursue an ETA because of her interest in education and a desire to learn more about other cultures to inform her career in teaching.

“I was inspired to apply from my time working at UB's Center for Excellence in Writing and from my time substitute teaching at various school districts, student teaching at Amherst High School, and tutoring at Buffalo Public Schools,” she says. “My favorite part of all of these experiences so far has been connecting with the students and watching them grow.”

She is a recipient of a Daniel Acker Scholarship (2019-23). After completing the Fulbright grant, Cabarga hopes to teach grades 5-12 in Buffalo. 

Cameron Kowalczewski of East Aurora, New York.  After receiving a bachelor’s degree in linguistics from UB in 2022, Kowalczewski earned an ETA to Taiwan.

A published poet, Kowalczewski says he pursued an ETA because of his experience with education and language learning. He has tutored Somali Bantu refugees in the City of Buffalo, as well as non-native English speakers in Germany. 

His future plans include pursuing master’s and doctoral degrees in linguistics.

Disorn Kwunchaithanya of Queens, New York.  A 2020 graduate from the School of Management with a bachelor’s of science in business administration, international business concentration, Kwunchaithanya received an ETA to Thailand.

Kwunchaithanya says he strongly believes in the power of English education and is pursuing a master’s in education with a focus on teaching adolescents with disabilities at the Banks Street College of Education in New York City. Kwunchaithanya has classroom experience as a special education teacher in New York City public schools and volunteered at a daycare center for more than two years.

He plans to work toward a PhD in sociology and eventually an academic career.

Liza Wilson of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  A master’s student in geology, Wilson earned a research grant to study deglaciation and changes in volcanism and seismicity in Iceland at the University of Iceland’s Institute of Earth Sciences in Reykjavik.

Her research will center on the relationship between glacial isostatic adjustment caused by glacial retreat and changes in seismic and volcanic activity.

Wilson received the Ernest F. Hollings Undergraduate Scholarship (2019-21) from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Killam Undergraduate Fellowship (2019), awarded by Fulbright Canada.

After completing the Fulbright, Wilson plans to begin doctoral work studying volcano-ice interactions and climate change.

Media Contact Information

Charles Anzalone News Content Manager Educational Opportunity Center, Law, Nursing, Honors College, Student Activities Tel: 716-645-4600 [email protected]

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